First official "Fran's Plan" session which was involving the Dublin City Half Marathon today for most of the group. I modified my session by recalling one of the previous weeks long runs.

What I like about this plan is the lack of traditional LSR (Long Slow Runs). I have the aerobic fitness and am working on specific race fitness and pacing. These are Long Progression Runs (LPR) and involve doing a little more work on tired legs.

So this LPR called for 30mins @5:20/km, 40mins @5:00/km and 3 x 15mins @4:45/km with 5mins easy in between. Great plans to be up and on the road by 06:30 but thanks to the Clarinbridge Oyster Festival & kids there was not a whole lot of sleepage, so late start, but I'd cover in work for the morning so not a complete disaster.

To the DJ playing music 3k away after midnight, it's not dollars you need, it's the belt of a hurl! Try it again tonight, I dare you.

Hitting the road, I'd plotted a nice route with some drags & exposed to wind too, again I found the easy pace awkward to run steadily to, but it worked out nicely. I wasn't using gels but did carry 600ml of High 5 4:1 (Carbohydrate : Protein) which I sipped at throughout.

In the review it turned out the pacing was spot on! 30mins @ 5:17, 40mins @4:55 and 3x 15mins each at 4:45, 4:45 & 4:41 all with 5mins recovery at bang on 5:00.

Up early with the kids, Edel going out for her LSR. So doing a bit of active recovery, bobbing around doing housework to the tunz of David Guetta. Kids loving the action and dancing along with their spinning umbrellas.

A bit of stretching to loosen the hamstrings and hip flexors. Other than a little bit of tightness there are (thankfully!) no ill effects of a big week of running. I have a short, easy run to do this afternoon but first we are going swimming with the kids.